Search results for "Alan Simpson"
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Age Rebellion
'Retirement bad! Living good! Refreshingly salty, unapologetically un-woo-woo, and totally inspirational.' - Ben Miller, Actor, comedian and bestselling author'As Shakespeare might have said, "To retire or not to retire that is the question"! Lyndsey Simpson's book is the perfect primer for answering that question- and more importantly what to do about it! At age 91, it even gave me some new ideas!' - Alan Patricof, American Venture Capital Investor'We have added 30 healthy years to life expectancy in the last century alone.'Whether you're approaching retirement, navigating a career change, or simply wondering how to live a meaningful life in your later years, this book provides both the insight and the practical tools you need to thrive. It's not just about planning - it's about creating a life that defies expectations and maximizes the incredible potential of your most experienced years. This book will empower you to reclaim control, make a new plan, and rewrite the rules of what's possible.The Age Rebellion is an inspiring, action-oriented approach to breaking free from outdated narratives about growing older, and through a refreshing blend of personal insight and practical advice, Reflecting a new global movement, this is a practical, inspiring book helping readers find an alternative to traditional retirement and redesign your future, your way. Showing how you can live a life of continued growth, productivity, and impact, no matter what your age.Written by entrepreneur, public speaker, and corporate consultant Lyndsey Simpson, this book is for anyone approaching mid or later life and feels unsure about what the future holds for their life and work and is looking for inspiration. Lyndsey invites the reader to challenge outdated myths about what it means to retire - the retirement rainbow, as she calls it - and question society's expectations of us as we reach this pivotal point in our lives. By teaching us how to plan for a future that we're excited about, rather than fearful of, readers will feel confident in boldly stepping into a new, empowered chapter of their lives.Ready to join the Age Rebellion? Let's rewrite the narrative of what it means to grow older, together.
R 485.00
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R 244.00
Wealth of the Gentry
Originally published in 1961, this book provides a series of narratives illustrating the financial situation of the East Anglian gentry in the period between the dissolution of the monasteries and the civil wars. Based on extensive research of estate documents, the narratives focus on specific cases in detail, using tables and extensive notes to back up observations. Indices of places, persons and subjects are also contained at the end of the text. This is a highly readable book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in regional history, economic history and the gentry.
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Python Automation For Dummies
Streamline Your Workflow and Boost Productivity with Python Automation In today's workplaces, there's a high demand for know-how on the Python programming language, especially for writing time-saving scripts that can simplify routine work tasks. Python Automation For Dummies delivers, with simple explanations of how you can use Python to automatically wrangle data files, manage media files, create shortcuts, find and organize web data, and even analyze social media for trends. With this easy-to-follow Dummies guide, you can upskill, expand your productivity, and speed up the process of generating data-driven insights. You'll even learn to enhance your Python automations with AI, for workflows that are faster and smarter. Review the basics of Python coding and follow steps for automating all sorts of tasksManage large file sets, organize and analyze data, and speed up research processesAutomate scheduling and other time-consuming tasks—and optimize work with AIFree up time and resources by automating routine work, so you can foucs on more important issues This is a great Dummies resource for Python developers interested in applying the popular coding language to make workflows more efficient.
R 798.00
I Too am Here
Alan and Mary McQueen Simpson introduce this selection from Jane Carlyle's letters with an assessment of her character, her marriage to 'my Man of Genius' Thomas Carlyle and her art of letter writing. The letters are arranged in sections corresponding to the main themes in her life. The selection begins with the strange, prolonged courtship; portraits, conscious and unconscious, of herself and her husband follow; much is about running the Chelsea house at 5 Cheyne Row, protecting Carlyle from noise, neighbours and bedbugs; a whole section is devoted to a Dickensian succession of mostly awful servants; another is about her 'outings' - including a deeply poignant account of her return to her childhood home; another deals with Carlyle's infatuation with Lady Ashburton as well as Jane's 'puddling health' and her recovery. This is a book to read right through with riveted enjoyment. It is one of the most fascinating correspondences in the English language.
R 2,235.90
R 524.00
Stupid TV, Be More Funny
This comprehensive account of the meteoric rise of The Simpsons combines incisive pop culture criticism and interviews with the show's creative team that take readers inside the making of an American phenomenon during its most influential decade, the 1990s.The Simpsons is an American institution. But its status as an occasionally sharp yet ultimately safe sitcom that's still going after 33 years on the air undercuts its revolutionary origins. The early years of the animated series didn't just impact Hollywood, they changed popular culture. It wasn't a watercooler show; it was a show that altered the way we talked around the watercooler, in school hallways, and on the campaign trail, by bridging generations with its comedic sensibility and prescient cultural commentary.In STUPID TV, BE MORE FUNNY, writer Alan Siegel reveals how the first decade of the show laid the groundwork for the series' true influence. He explores how the show's rise from 1990 to 1998 intertwined with the supposedly ascendent post-Cold War America, turning Fox into the juggernaut we know today, simultaneously shaking its head at America's culture wars while finding itself in the middle of them. By packing the book with anecdotes from icons like Conan O'Brien and Yeardley Smith, Siegel also provides readers with an unparalleled look inside the making of the show.Through interviews with the show's legendary staff and whip-smart analysis, Siegel charts how The Simpsons developed its singular sensibility throughout the '90s, one that was at once groundbreakingly subversive for a primetime cartoon and shocking wholesome. The result is a definitive history of The Simpsons' most essential decade.
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R 303.68
FUN!
Combining media effects with aesthetic approaches this book offers the first substantial, systematic and coherent account of fun and its importance. But what exactly is fun and what purposes does it serve? Fun is a vital element of entertainment, and entertainment is the most important form of culture in modern Western democracies. It demonstrates that fun is at the heart of entertainment's effects – entertainment both offers its consumers fun and provides them with the intellectual materials to think about the nature of fun. More than this, the book argues that entertainment shows us that fun – pleasure without purpose – is at the heart of living a good life. Illustrated with detailed examples from entertainment – from the Urban Dictionary to The Simpsons, to the Culture novels of Iain M Banks – this book is intelligent, original, and even (dare we say it) fun.
R 1,798.85
R 570.00
Trajectories of Freedom
This work is a collection of selected papers presented at the conference “Trajectories of Freedom: Caribbean Societies, 1807–2007”, a theme inspired by the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in the British Empire. The papers interrogate and problematise shifting notions and expressions of “freedom” as they have evolved in Caribbean societies over the past two hundred years and as they have been applied in the context of the contemporary Caribbean. Together, these essays illustrate the historical and continuing efforts in the various spheres of human endeavour in the Caribbean, including culture, education, language, social organisation, gender and politics – notwithstanding the constraints placed on Caribbean people by the legacies of slavery and colonialism – to finish the business of emancipation. Contributors: Agnel Barron, April Bernard, Bridget Brereton, Alan Cobley, Sandra Gift, Ena Harris, Oba Kenyatta Omowale Kiteme, Hilde Neus van der Putten, Edith Pérez Sisto, Agostinho M.N. Pinnock, Kelvin Quintyne, Kirwin R. Shaffer, Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Victor C. Simpson, Jerome Teelucksingh.
R 1,466.00
R 496.07
Reasonable Doubts
One of America's leading appeal lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, examines the American criminal justice system, critically analyzing its strengths and weaknesses. Using the O.J. Simpson murder case as the backdrop, Reasonable Doubts explores the larger issues that shape our country's legal system.Chosen to prepare the appeal should O.J. Simpson be convicted, Alan Dershowitz is uniquely suited to deconstruct the case in order to use it in understanding the modern criminal justice system. The crucial questions raised by the O.J. Simpson case, and Dershowitz's answers, invite a reassessment not only of the case itself, but also of the strengths—and weaknesses—of the legal system in America today.
R 494.00
Sciences and the Self in Medieval Poetry
In this 1995 study James Simpson examines two great poems of the later medieval period, the Latin philosophical epic, Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus (1181–3), and John Gower's English poem, The Confessio Amantis (1390–3). Simpson locates these works in a cultural context dominated by two kinds of literary humanism: the absolutist, whose philosophical mentor is Plato, whose literary model is Virgil and whose concept of the self is centred in the intellect, and the constitutionalist, whose classical models are Aristotle and Ovid and whose concept of the self resides in the mediatory power of the imagination. Both poems are examples of the Bildungsroman, in which the self reaches its fullness only by traversing an educational cursus in the related sciences of ethics, politics and cosmology, but as this study shows, there are very different modes of thought behind their conceptions of selfhood and education.
R 2,235.90
R 1,710.00
Causation in Criminal Law
This collection presents a leading contribution in the substantive arena relating to causation in criminal law. Extant law reveals significant problems in adoption of consistent approaches to doctrinal and theoretical underpinnings of legal causation and culpability thresholds. This has been exemplified by a plethora of recent jurisprudential authorities revealing varying degrees of confusion and vacillation. A variety of Law Commission proposals, although emboldening the debate, have yet to be adopted in any logical template. The volume addresses three specific elements within this arena, embracing an overarching synergy between them. This edifice engages in an examination of UK provisions, with specialist contributions on domestic law, and in contrasting these provisions against alternative domestic jurisdictions as well as comparative contributions addressing a particularised research grid for content. The comparative chapters provide a wider background of how other legal systems treat a variety of specialised issues relating to causation in the context of the criminal law. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the book will be an invaluable resource for researchers, academics and practitioners working in comparative criminal law and related areas.
R 9,318.65
Fatal Strain
In 2009, Swine Flu reminded us that pandemics still happen, and award- winning journalist Alan Sipress reminds us that far worse could be brewing. When a highly lethal strain of avian flu broke out in Asia in 2003 and raced westward, Sipress, as a reporter for "The Washington Post", tracked the virus across nine countries, watching its secrets elude the world's brightest scientists and most intrepid disease hunters. A vivid portrayal of the struggle between man and microbe, "The Fatal Strain" is a fast-moving account that weaves cultural, political, and scientific strands into a tale of inevitable pandemic.
R 704.00
Sciences and the Self in Medieval Poetry
In this 1995 study James Simpson examines two great poems of the later medieval period, the Latin philosophical epic, Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus (1181–3), and John Gower's English poem, The Confessio Amantis (1390–3). Simpson locates these works in a cultural context dominated by two kinds of literary humanism: the absolutist, whose philosophical mentor is Plato, whose literary model is Virgil and whose concept of the self is centred in the intellect, and the constitutionalist, whose classical models are Aristotle and Ovid and whose concept of the self resides in the mediatory power of the imagination. Both poems are examples of the Bildungsroman, in which the self reaches its fullness only by traversing an educational cursus in the related sciences of ethics, politics and cosmology, but as this study shows, there are very different modes of thought behind their conceptions of selfhood and education.
R 6,029.52
Highland Shepherd
In 1786, the Reverend James MacGregor (1759-1830) was dispatched across the North Atlantic to establish a dissenting Presbyterian church in Pictou, Nova Scotia. The decision dismayed MacGregor, who had hoped for a post in the Scottish Highlands. Yet it led to a remarkable career in what was still the backwoods of colonial North America. Industrious and erudite, MacGregor established the progressive Pictou Academy, opposed slavery, and promoted scientific education, agriculture, and industry. Poet and translator, fluent in nine languages, he encouraged the preservation of the Gaelic language and promoted Scottish culture in Nova Scotia. Highland Shepherd finally bestows on MacGregor the recognition that he so richly deserves. Alan Wilson brings MacGregor and his surroundings to life, detailing his numerous achievements and establishing his importance to the social, religious, and intellectual history of the Maritimes.
R 2,630.00
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Disney & His Worlds
This work provides an overview of the Disney organization, in particular the theme parks and their significance for contemporary culture. The author examines topics such as Walt Disney's life and how his biography has been constructed, the Disney Company in the years after his death and various writings about the Disney theme parks. He raises important issues about the parks such as: whether they are harbringers of postmodernism; the significance of consumption at the parks; and the representation of past and future. The discussion of theme parks links with the presentation of Disney's biography and his organization by showing how central economic and business considerations have been in their development and how the significance of these considerations is typically marginalized in order to place an emphasis on fantasy and magic.
R 3,422.59
Age Rebellion
'Retirement bad! Living good! Refreshingly salty, unapologetically un-woo-woo, and totally inspirational.' - Ben Miller, Actor, comedian and bestselling author'As Shakespeare might have said, "To retire or not to retire that is the question"! Lyndsey Simpson's book is the perfect primer for answering that question- and more importantly what to do about it! At age 91, it even gave me some new ideas!' - Alan Patricof, American Venture Capital Investor'We have added 30 healthy years to life expectancy in the last century alone.'Whether you're approaching retirement, navigating a career change, or simply wondering how to live a meaningful life in your later years, this book provides both the insight and the practical tools you need to thrive. It's not just about planning - it's about creating a life that defies expectations and maximizes the incredible potential of your most experienced years. This book will empower you to reclaim control, make a new plan, and rewrite the rules of what's possible.The Age Rebellion is an inspiring, action-oriented approach to breaking free from outdated narratives about growing older, and through a refreshing blend of personal insight and practical advice, Reflecting a new global movement, this is a practical, inspiring book helping readers find an alternative to traditional retirement and redesign your future, your way. Showing how you can live a life of continued growth, productivity, and impact, no matter what your age.Written by entrepreneur, public speaker, and corporate consultant Lyndsey Simpson, this book is for anyone approaching mid or later life and feels unsure about what the future holds for their life and work and is looking for inspiration. Lyndsey invites the reader to challenge outdated myths about what it means to retire - the retirement rainbow, as she calls it - and question society's expectations of us as we reach this pivotal point in our lives. By teaching us how to plan for a future that we're excited about, rather than fearful of, readers will feel confident in boldly stepping into a new, empowered chapter of their lives.Ready to join the Age Rebellion? Let's rewrite the narrative of what it means to grow older, together.
R 680.00
Migrant Architects of the NHS
Migrant architects of the NHS draws on forty-five oral history interviews and extensive archival research to offer a radical reappraisal of how the National Health Service was made. It tells the story of migrant South Asian doctors who became general practitioners in the NHS. Imperial legacies, professional discrimination and an exodus of UK-trained doctors combined to direct these doctors towards work as GPs in some of the most deprived parts of the UK. In some areas, they made up over half of the general practitioner workforce. The NHS was structurally dependent on them and they shaped British society and medicine through their agency. Aimed at students and academics with interests in the history of immigration, immigration studies, the history of medicine, South Asian studies and oral history. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about how Empire and migration have contributed to making Britain what it is today.
R 4,749.38
News from No Man's Land
The third volume of autobiography from legendary foreign correspondent, John Simpson.13 November 2001. John Simpson and a BBC news crew walked into Kabul and the liberation of the Afghan capital was broadcast to a waiting world. It was the end of a sustained campaign against the Taliban, a campaign that Simpson had covered from the beginning, despite appalling difficulties and, often, great danger.In News from No Mans Land, his third memoir of a life spent reporting around the world, he focuses on how journalists set about finding the stories that make the headlines. Like his previous books, it is rich in anecdote and filled with extraordinary encounters with remarkable individuals.It is quintessential Simpson: vivid, utterly absorbing and written with all the care and lucidity of his reporting style.'Great stories told with great gusto . . . an easy and rewarding read' – Jon Snow, Daily Mail'A brilliant raconteur' – The SpectatorThe fascinating stories continue in John Simpson's fourth volume of autobiography, Not Quite World's End.
R 836.58
Beckoning Frontiers
2021 Publication Award in Biography from the Wyoming State Historical Society Westerners International Co-Founders Book Award, second place George W. T. Beck, an influential rancher and entrepreneur in the American West, collaborated with William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody to establish the town of Cody, Wyoming, in the 1890s. He advanced his financial investments in Wyoming through his numerous personal and professional contacts with various eastern investors and politicians in Washington DC. Beck’s family—his father a Kentucky senator and his mother a grandniece of George Washington—and his adventures in the American West resulted in personal associates who ranged from western legends Buffalo Bill, Jesse James, and Calamity Jane to wealthy American elites such as George and Phoebe Hearst and Theodore Roosevelt. This definitive edition of Beck’s memoir provides a glimpse of early life in Wyoming, offering readers a rare perspective on how community boosters cooperated with political leaders and wealthy financiers. Beck’s memoir, introduced and annotated by Lynn J. Houze and Jeremy M. Johnston, offers a unique and sometimes amusing view of financial dealings in eastern boardrooms, as well as stories of Beck’s adventures with Buffalo Bill in Wyoming. Beck’s memoir demonstrates not only his interest in developing the West but also his humor and his willingness to collaborate with a variety of people.
R 2,748.00
Inner Islands
This book looks at some of the state's least-known special places. Blending history, oral history, autobiography, and travel narrative, Bland Simpson explores the islands that lie in the sounds, rivers, and swamps of North Carolina's inner coast. In each of the fifteen chapters in the book, Simpson covers a single island or group of islands, many of which, were it not for the buffering Outer Banks, would be lost to the ebbs and flows of the Atlantic. Instead they are home to unique plant and animal species and well-established hardwood forests, and many retain intriguing vestiges of an earlier human history.
R 707.00
The Abuse Excuse
According to renowned defense attorney and Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, "abuse excuses" are enabling people to get away with murder - literally. From the Menendez brothers to Lorena Bobbitt, more and more Americans accused of violent crimes are admitting to the charges, but arguing that they shouldn't be held legally responsible. The reason: they're victims - of an abusive parent, a violent spouse, a traumatic experience, ethnic hatred, society at large, or anything else - who struck back at a real or perceived oppressor. And they couldn't help themselves, they say. In this provocative and important collection of essays, Dershowitz reviews a wide range of recent cases - including those of O. J. Simpson, Tonya Harding, and Woody Allen - and argues that the current vogue in victim defenses is antithetical to the ideals of our constitutional democracy. For Dershowitz, the foundations of American society are individual responsibility and the rule of law. And people who claim to be above the law - whatever the excuse - are no more than vigilantes.
R 573.00
Observations by a Souvenir from Down Under
A lighthearted, tongue in cheek commentary on life from the perspective of a lovable stuffed model Koala during the period of 1956 to date. He was purchased by a Royal Air Force man in 1956 as a souvenir of his days spent on the British Nuclear Tests held in South Australia.
R 427.44
Land Where Blues Began
Winner of a National Book Critics Circle award, a rollicking and unforgettable memoir by the man who helped bring the music of the blues into the mainstream“Without Lomax it’s possible that there would have been no blues explosion, no R&B movement, no Beatles and no Stones and no Velvet Underground.” —Brian EnoA self-described “song-hunter,” the folklorist Alan Lomax traveled the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s and ’40s, armed with primitive recording equipment and a keen love of the Delta’s music heritage. Crisscrossing the towns and hamlets where the blues began, Lomax gave voice to such greats as Leadbelly, Fred MacDowell, Muddy Waters, and many others, all of whom made their debut recordings with him.The Land Where the Blues Began is both a fascinating recollection of a pivotal time in American music history and an intimate portrait of the struggles blues musicians faced in the Jim Crow South. The blues were an organic expression of Black humanity in a place where slavery had been outlawed but where segregation, violence, and racial inequality were still the law of the land. Lomax’s role as a liaison to white America, relating the emotion and musical virtuosity displayed by those musicians, would change American popular music forever. Through candid conversations with bluesmen and vivid, firsthand accounts of the landscape where their music was born, Lomax’s “discerning reconstructions . . . give life to a domain most of us can never know . . . one that summons us with an oddly familiar sensation of reverence and dread” (The New York Times Book Review).Artistic expression has always been a way for oppressed peoples to speak truth to power, assert their dignity, and simply live in a world rife with injustice. The Land Where the Blues Began is an enthralling chronicle of the journey to bring this irrepressible art out of the Delta where it began and into the ears of every American.
R 1,384.00
Authentic Captain Marvel Ring and Other Stories
The very best short stories and novellas from National Public Radio's Alan Cheuse are brought together in a quintessential collection. Countless listeners depend on the book reviews from Cheuse, America's "voice of books," and many of those listeners also follow his own critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction. The title story—a flash fiction piece that acts as both prologue and an intriguing look at a writer's inspiration—takes us through a child's eyes into a fantastic land, one that informs, shapes, and travels along with the other stories in this stunning collection. These stories deal with life, death, love, family, work, and a deep exploration of the soul.
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R 615.00
Herbert Sutcliffe
A national hero in his playing days, Herbert Sutcliffe belongs to a select band of all-time cricketing greats. Alan Hill’s award-winning biography of the Yorkshire and England batsman charts his extraordinary transformation from cobbler’s apprentice to urbane gentleman: one of the coolest, most determined and technically accomplished practitioners the game has ever known.Blessed with the looks of a matinee idol, Sutcliffe was a complex, often enigmatic, personality. As a cricketer, he was touched with genius. His career spanned exactly the years between the wars and he performed with distinction in every one of those seasons. He scored 50,138 first-class runs, including 149 centuries, and his remarkable Test average of 60.73 is the highest for an English batsman – higher than those of Hobbs, Hammond or Hutton.Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro calls upon the reminiscences of Bob Wyatt, Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Len Hutton and Les Ames among other illustrious contemporaries, to evoke the splendour of Sutcliffe’s achievements for Yorkshire and England, and to bring to life the vivacious story of one of the greatest batsmen ever.
R 495.00
Strange Places, Questionable People
For over thirty years, John Simpson has travelled the world to report on the most significant events of our time. From being punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on one of his first days as a reporter, to escaping summary execution in Beirut, flying into Teheran with the returning Ayatollah Khomeini, and narrowly avoiding entrapment by a beautiful Czech secret agent, Simpson has had an astonishingly eventful career. In 1989 he witnessed the Tiananmen Square massacre, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism throughout Eastern Europe and, only weeks later, in South Africa, the release of Nelson Mandela. With Simpson's uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time, this autobiography is a ring-side seat at every major event in recent global history. 'So vivid I could feel my heart beating' Jonathan Mirsky, Spectator 'great stories, sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious' Daily Telegraph
R 1,065.49
Just Ignore Him
'A simply astonishing achievement. The quality, depth, emotional power and terrifying honesty of Alan Davies's story-telling take the breath away' Stephen Fry'This hugely affecting book is brave, insightful and, at times, funny about things it is hard to be funny about' Jo BrandThe story of a life built on sand. In the rain.In this compelling memoir, comedian and actor Alan Davies recalls his boyhood with vivid insight and devastating humour. Shifting between his 1970s upbringing and his life today, Davies moves poignantly from innocence to experience to the clarity of hindsight, always with a keen sense of the absurd.From sibling dynamics, to his voiceless, misunderstood progression through school, sexuality and humiliating 'accidents', Davies inhabits his younger mind with spectacular accuracy, sharply evoking an era when Green Shield Stamps, Bob-a-Job week and Whizzer & Chips loomed large, a bus fare was 2p - and children had little power in the face of adult motivation. Here, there are often exquisitely tender recollections of the mother he lost at six years old, of a bereaved family struggling to find its way, and the kicks and confusion of adolescence.Through even the joyous and innocent memories, the pain of Davies's lifelong grief and profound betrayal is unfiltered, searing and beautifully articulated. Just Ignore Him is not only an autobiography, it is a testament to a survivor's resilience and courage.
R 402.00
R 585.00
Normal-ish: A Memoir
Most kids want to fit in. To be normal. But Alan Simmons never quite made it to normal. His Southern Baptist family worked for and lived next to the Monastery of St. Clare, a Catholic convent that housed 28 secluded nuns. Normal kids played sports. Alan helped his father bury deceased nuns and seal their graves in a crypt underneath the monastery. Normal kids brought toys or pet hamsters to Show and Tell. Alan brought rosary beads. Growing up straddling 2 cultures eventually gets to a kid. Especially a fat kid whose chances of fitting in are slim to begin with. But there's never a dull moment. The priest next door thinks he's a Jack London character. Sister Joan's cousin is from another planet. And Sister Angela's great-nephew is an 80s rock icon. Despite his comical surroundings, though, Alan fights a daily battle with self-hatred, and he's at the end of his rope. He's desperate to feel loved, to feel normal. But he's starting to think he might just have to settle for normal-ish.
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Audrey Hepburns Neck
Offering a unique perspective and unusual insight into modern Japan and its wartime past, Audrey Hepburn's Neck is also a shrewd study of cross-cultural obsessions, and of erotic, romantic, and familial love.The American author Alan Brown crosses both racial and cultural lines to tell his story through the eyes of a young, handsome Japanese cartoonist, Toshiyuki ("Toshi") Okamoto, who traces his strong attraction to Western women back to his ninth birthday, when his mother took him to see Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday. Leaving behind a sad, silent childhood—which was spent living in two rooms above the family noodle shop on an isolated peninsula in the far north of Japan—Toshi moves to Tokyo to pursue his career. There he falls under the spell of three Americans: his best friend and confidante, the generous and extroverted Paul, a gay advertising copywriter who has plenty of his romantic mishaps with Japanese men; Jane, his glamorous but emotionally unstable teacher at the Very Romantic English Academy, with whom Toshi has a hazardous sexual affair; and, finally, the lovely and talented composer, Lucy, with whom Toshi falls in love. The novel deftly moves back and forth between present and past, as Toshi explores his unhappy childhood, the reasons behind his mother's unexplained abandonment when he was eight years old, and her move to a seaside inn across the peninsula. As the novel draws to a close, tragic events, both public and personal, bring past and present together, revealing the painful truth of Toshi's parents' lives during World War II, and a secret in Toshi's own past that, in the end, gives him the strength and knowledge to confront the future.
R 546.00
